ADSL: ABC

Everyone and anyone is a user of the internet; yet there are still a large number of baffling acronyms being spouted by service providers, making the world of internet connectivity hard to get to grips with.

That is where Gradwell’s ADSL ABC comes in. We’ve gathered up the connectivity acronyms and have put them into plain English:

ADSL (ADSL2+): Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. This is the most common way that broadband is delivered in the UK. It uses your telephone line to send and receive data, splitting out the voice data from your telephone conversations and delivering the internet! ADSL2+ is the same thing, but faster.

Offered at Gradwell as SMPF.

MPF: Metallic Path Facility.Usually internet delivered via a telephone line, as with ADSL above, two providers use the connection to provide the service, and means you pay line rental to BT even if you use someone else for telephone and internet services. MPF removes the shared part as your provider takes ownership of the whole thing and provides telephone and internet services, which (with Gradwell anyway) means no line rental!

EFM: Ethernet in the First Mile, uses the existing telephone line, like ADSL, but bonds pairs of copper wires together to create more stable connections. If a problem occurred on an ADSL line, the service would stop. If a problem occurred on an EFM line, one pair might go down; slowing the service, but there would still be a connection.

FTTC/FTTP: Fibre To The Cabinet/Premises. This is the new super-fast broadband that everyone is talking about. Instead of using a line made up of just traditional copper wire, FTTC and FTTP use fibre optic cable, so you can achieve speeds of up to 1Gbps (60 times faster than ADSL).

The difference between the two acronyms is that FTTC is delivered to a box in the street, then the data is sent over copper wire to you; meaning the further you are away from the box, the more speed you’ll lose. FTTP, on the other hand, is delivered right into (you guessed it) your premises. This means there isn’t a chance to lose any speed and you get rid of the “up to” phrase.

NTE: Network Termination Equipment. When you have services like EFM, FTTC or FTTP, you need to have equipment that can take the data and turn it into something your router can handle. Think of oil and cars. Oil is pulled out of the ground, passed through a refinery and is then used as fuel for cars. The NTE refines the data for your router.

LLU: Local Loop Unbundling. First off, BT Business and BT Openreach are different people. BT Business will provide a service, like Gradwell or TalkTalk can. BT Openreach owns the UK’s telecommunications infrastructure. Through LLU, other internet service providers can install their own equipment in telephone exchanges across the country to provide services to their own customers, while using some BT Openreach infrastructure to make it all work.

Of course, a small fee says thank you to BT Openreach (that even BT Business has to pay) – your monthly line rental charge.

If you’re still confused, or you would just like to know more about the above services, give us a call on 01225 800 808 or email sales@gradwell.com.